For women: The SEED Project’s Women’s Wardrobe officially launches in Seymour’s Recovery Hub on Monday, March 18. Photo: Faith Macale
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Faith Macale
The SEED Project in Seymour launched a new initiative called Women’s Wardrobe on Monday, March 18.
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The Women’s Wardrobe aims to help women living in Seymour and surrounding areas access free clothing to wear confidently at their current workplace or when interviewing for a new job.
Project co-ordinator Renae Costantini thanked everyone who donated clothes to kick-start the initiative.
“After today, we are going to keep this officially from the eighth of April, which we’ll run fortnightly on Mondays,” she said.
“We’ll still continue to take donations through, which can come directly to us at the SEED Hub, and then we can organise them and bring them down here (the Recovery Hub).”
The Women’s Wardrobe will have official operation times fortnightly at the Recovery Hub in Guild St from 10am to 2pm, but women can still call any time for urgent or last-minute outfit needs.
“They would contact us at SEED, and we’ll sort of do a bit of an over-the-phone (consultation),” Ms Costantini said.
“Get an idea of sizing preferences — do they like pants, do they like dresses — so that when they come in here for their appointment, we can have a range of items out for them without sort of having to go through lots of tubs.”
Ready to wear: A community member steps into the dressing room for an outfit consultation. Photo: Faith Macale
Photo by
Faith Macale
The appointments will run for around 35 to 40 minutes, during which time clients can try on clothes, get advice on how to do their makeup and hair according to their preferences and be ready to face their interview or work confidently.
Ms Costantini stressed that there was no need to return the garments afterwards.
“This is a completely free service, so you can take what you need,” she said.
“There’s no limitations or anything like that.
“It’s yours, and you can keep them.”
SEED Project stakeholder engagement lead Ben VanderZee said the project was one of the 15 goals the Community Investment Committee was working towards.
The committee was established to investigate opportunities for local women to improve their financial circumstances and overall wellbeing.
“At the SEED Project, we realise that financial insecurity isn’t a simple issue,” Mr VanderZee said.
“While employment or education or access to support like SEED can all help to maintain women’s financial wellbeing, there are a lot of other factors that can get in the way of this.
“For women living regionally, and in Seymour specifically, financial insecurity doesn’t happen in isolation.”
Mr VanderZee highlighted that the lack of childcare in Seymour, health and family circumstances, discriminatory gender attitudes and intergenerational poverty could play a role in affecting a woman’s financial journey in life.
“Even if you can get all those puzzle pieces in place, external factors like the current cost-of-living issues can appear and play a disruptive role,” he said.
The Women’s Wardrobe will continue to run fortnightly every Monday from April 8.
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